Oscar Isaac played the titular villain in X-Men: Apocalypse, but the role found the actor buried under an elaborate costume and prosthetics, and it wasn’t exactly a high point for the franchise. It turns out it also kept Isaac from enjoying the very reason he signed on to the film: working with actors like Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, and others.
Isaac brought up the film during a recent appearance on Hot Ones. “One of the big reasons I did the job, I was like Fassbender? Jennifer Lawrence? McAvoy? All these amazing actors. Yeah!” he said. “And then I never saw any of them because I was so overheated. And like I couldn’t turn. So, I just got put in this cooling tent.“
He added, “Sometimes someone would come by and be like [patting him on the back] hey Oscar. I’d be like huh? And by the time I turned around they were gone already. So, it was very challenging. But I am thankful for the cooling tent.“
Despite calling his experience on X-Men: Apocalypse “excruciating,” Isaac told The New York Times in 2022 that he wasn’t going to throw the film under the bus.
“No, I don’t disown it,” Isaac said. “I know exactly what I went in there wanting to do and the reasons why. There were these amazing actors involved that I really wanted to work with, [James] McAvoy and [Michael] Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence. I collected X-Men growing up, and I loved Apocalypse. I just found him such a freaky, weird character. And then you get there, and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got all these prosthetics on. I’ve got a suit on. I can’t move. I can’t see anybody. All these actors I wanted to work with — I can’t even see who they are.’“
He added, “I still think back to that time with fondness. I wish it would have been a better film and that they would have taken care of the character a little better, but those are the risks.“
When compared to the success of X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse couldn’t help but feel like a major letdown. But it started to look a lot better with the release of Dark Phoenix, which might be my least favourite installment of the entire franchise.